Who's acting? If you have no appreciation of spectacle, state it plainly. Impose a crude, backhanded characterization on the proceedings such as "dumb excitement," and expect to answer for it.

It's fashionable to divorce action and character-driven drama in critical discourse. I think Sam was the thematic mascot of the episode. Despite your fears, despite your reservations, sometimes you have to dismiss your self and fight like hell to get through the night.

"Slack-jawed pre-teen." Spoken like a true snob.

Perhaps not, but I find myself genuinely bewildered by the prominent pockets of indifference.

Reeeeally wish more of us would divorce ourselves from that self-depriving practice of comparative viewing. What was served up tonight was an incredibly generous helping of literally spectacular entertainment, and we still have folks turning up their noses at it.

I found it firmly serviceable, and even exhilarating. It's not that I don't ever find fault with the show. Hell, Jon's and Dany's arcs in S2 are still black eyes in my book. I found them awful enough to deter me from revisiting that entire season.

I was squealing in amazement when he got blasted through that shoddy roof. What a shot.

The circumstances of the Battle Beyond the Wall are hardly minutiae, and all signs point to the greater details being adhered to. Cry me a bloody river.

Thankfully the more appreciative comments are bubbling to the top.

Stannis wasn't at the battle depicted, so it makes perfect sense why he was absent this week. They gave Stannis an arc this season. I'm sure they will deliver. It really sounds like some folks are jumbling the timeline of his arrival.

Sounds like you have a grasp on why the episode didn't do it for you. Being a woman doesn't have much to do with it, methinks.

For the inverted reasons why Pacific Rim was so entertaining, IMO. Del Toro did his damndest to collaborate with ILM to give the Kaiju personalities, whereas Godzilla's Godzilla was surprisingly uninvolving as a character. It didn't help that he was fighting blown-up parasites from Cloverfield in a smoke-obscured,…

Why people are clinging onto the Stannis point is beyond me. It just reeks of impatience. The Battle at Castle Black and the Battle Beyond the Wall should remain the distinct occasions they are, and this week's episode had more than enough content already. It's a perfectly sensible decision that will sweeten the…

Exactly where the fuck he was at this time in the books. Off the page, off the screen.

Was there THAT MUCH more setup for his appearance in the books?

My god, Godzilla put me to sleep, and I had high hopes for it. At least Pacific Rim had some bloody color, not to mention a shining soul for all its genre retreads. I swear, some people are better at being disappointed than entertained.

Not all of us feel the way they do, thank the Seven.

Why the flying fruit would Stannis pull a Deus Ex Lannister at the end of THIS episode? WHY?

I really felt they made the most of everyone at the Wall this week.

It's a fixture of the fandom at this point. What a miserable lot.